Staff photo by Ellis LuciaBusinessman Gary Copp leaves the St. Tammany Parish Courthouse in Covington after being sentenced Tuesday.

The co-owner and president of SpeeDee Oil Change was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail and two years of home incarceration for aggravated second-degree battery after a February trial that included an allegation that Mandeville's mayor had used undue influence in helping his well-heeled acquaintance.

Gary Copp, 53, of Madisonville, must report Monday to the St. Tammany Parish jail in Covington by 10 a.m.

He was convicted of a 2006 attack that left Paula Rome, a single mother of two children, with severe cognitive handicaps, including short-term memory loss.

According to testimony, Copp and Rome exchanged words Feb. 22, 2006, at the Cru Wine Bar in Mandeville. Rome and the state attorney general's office said Copp slung Rome off her bar stool and then, while she was on the ground, stomped on her head several times with the heel of his cowboy boot.

In addition to the jail time, state District Judge Peter Garcia ordered Copp to attend anger management classes, perform 500 hours of community service and pay a $10,000 fine.

Pleading for a new trial

Defense attorney Ralph Capitelli argued Tuesday for a retrial. In his arguments, he mainly referred to what he described as Assistant Attorney General Emma Devillier's contention that "a possible fix was in between Copp and the mayor."

"The whole issue of the fix, the fix, the fix, the fix," Capitelli reiterated. "She used it to destroy Gary Copp's credibility (in front of the jury), but it did not happen that way."

Capitelli attempted to degrade Cpl. Randy Lambert's Feb. 1 testimony that Mayor Eddie Price had called the Mandeville police station after the incident and asked officers to issue Copp a summons on a reduced charge.

"We were going to arrest him with aggravated battery, a felony, because he was using an instrument, his shoe, that caused serious bodily injury," Lambert said during the trial. "But then the mayor called us and said Copp would come in and give us a statement as long as we gave him a misdemeanor instead."

Capitelli told the judge Tuesday that Lambert had lied on the stand, and thereby had tainted the jury's opinion of his client.

"Officer Lambert lied. Officer Lambert was mistaken. Officer Lambert got his dates wrong," Capitelli opined. "Copp didn't even know the mayor very well. .¤.¤. He's never been to Price's home, and Price had never been to his."

Ruling on Capitelli's motion for a new trial, Garcia disagreed with his assessment of Lambert.

Garcia said that after reviewing the testimony, he had found "complete credibility on the part of Lambert's testimony."

During his closing appeal to the judge, Copp once again denied calling the mayor the night of the incident.

But Copp's version of the events contradicts that of Lambert and the mayor, who talked to The Times-Picayune after the trial and admitted to receiving a phone call from Copp after the crime.

The mayor said in the interview that he had never asked for the charge to be reduced and that he only had mentioned a lesser charge because he had thought that no one had been seriously injured.

Defendant's account

opp maintained Tuesday that he threw Rome, 42, off her bar stool that night out of self-defense, because she had aggressively berated and wielded a lit cigarette at him.

The defense's argument had rested on the assumption that Rome's injuries were caused by hitting a bar table while falling off the bar stool, and that Copp had never kicked her.

Rome said in her victim's impact statement that she would never forgive Copp because "you have showed no remorse."

The prosecution maintained that Copp attacked Rome after she repeatedly rebuffed his advances toward her.

The maximum sentence for aggravated second-degree battery is 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

After being released from jail, Copp will be confined to his Madisonville home, except for attending church, his children's school activities and going into his office once a week between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. He will be strapped with a GPS bracelet so he does not violate the conditions of his confinement.

Garcia also ordered him to serve five years of probation.

"I don't think six months is long enough, but I am pleased," Rome said. "I think the judgment was fair."

Showing some leniency

Garcia cited Copp's medical issues -- he has had heart surgeries that require him to use a strong blood thinner that can make him susceptible to injury -- as reasons for the shorter jail sentence and the subsequent home incarceration.

He said, "Copp is a contributing member to our community and a good father" but that it is his actions' "effects on the victim and her family that weighs so heavily on me."

Garcia also referred "to the well over 100 letters in support of Mr. Copp's character" he had received before the sentencing.

But he questioned Copp's reaction after the attack, "literally stepping over her bleeding body lying on the barroom floor."

Capitelli and Copp refused to comment after the trial, but co-defense attorney Stephen London commented briefly on Copp's demeanor while descending the courthouse's steps.

"He looks confident, but he's surely sorry," London said.

Benjamin Alexander-Bloch can be reached at bbloch@timespicayune.com or (985) 898-4827.